"Who to Blame When Bad Things
Happen?"

Feb.28/16 Luke 13:1-9

PIN THE BLAME ON THE DONKEY

"Why ME?!!" It's
happened to all of us - we're going along in our life's adventure, all
innocently enough, and suddenly the
wheels seem to come off the proverbial wagon. Our vehicle hits a
stretch of black ice and all at once we're over in the wrong
lane. The optometrist announces we have cataracts. The doctor wants to
take a closer look at an unusual spot on our back.
Whatever it is, we find ourselves throwing an impromptu pity-party and
protesting, "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve
this?!" And we feel ourselves very hard done by.

Recently my
sister-in-law was repainting their bathroom after they replaced the tub
and floor tiles. Falling from the ladder,
she broke her shoulder. It all happens so fast. Bring on the sling and
physiotherapy.

Theologians
identify generally two categories of evil: moral evil and natural evil.
"Moral evil" involves some kind of free
moral agent, whose choice is fairly obviously a contributing factor,
and so blame can be more easily assigned. Lk13:1 gives an
example of "moral evil". "Now there were some present at that time who
told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mixed with their sacrifices." We don't know anything else about this
incident from other historical sources: whether these
particular Gentiles had rebelled, or just happened to become victims of
Pilate's wrath as a consequence of others' rebellion. But
at least here there is clearly a free moral agent (Pontius Pilate, the
Roman Governor of Judea) deciding to inflict death on people
who did not seem to deserve it - and at a most inappropriate place, as
they were worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem. We do
know from other sources that this was NOT out of character for Pilate.
That's "moral evil".

The more difficult
type of evil is "natural evil": here there is no obvious free moral
agent involved. Consider the example
Jesus offers in Lk 13:4 - "those 18 who died when the tower in Siloam
fell on them." Perhaps they were working on an aqueduct
in the southeast corner of Jerusalem; again, we don't know the details.
Building collapses happen all the time. On Feb.10 a 17-floor apartment
building collapsed when an earthquake struck Tainan, Taiwan, killing
about 116 people. Three former
executives of the company that built the collapsed building were
arrested on charges of professional negligence; but who's to
blame for the earthquake? Did it take God by surprise?

Christians profess
to believe in an omnipotent, loving God, so we will always have to
wrestle with the problem of suffering
and evil. Perhaps like me you were taught the mealtime grace: "God is
great, God is good, and we thank Him for our food."
Those two terms - "great" and "good" - summarize much of the dilemma.
If God is great, then He's ABLE to prevent evil from
occurring; if God is good, He would not WISH for evil to occur; yet,
evil is evident around us. What gives?

As philosopher
David Hume put it: "Is he willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then
is he impotent. Is he able, but not
willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing: whence
then is evil?"

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: THICK THINKING

What was motivating
those who told Jesus about the Galileans Pilate murdered as they were
offering sacrifices at the Temple?
What kind of response might they have been hoping for? What would you
have expected Jane or Joe Q Public to say in a typical
person-on-the-street interview? "There's that disgusting Roman
occupation government for you!" Or the more general, "Isn't
that awful! Such innocent bystanders slaughtered outright!" But Jesus
doesn't fall into our conventional, automatic-rut ways of
responding. Instead He questions our typical ways of thinking and
categorizing such events.

V2 "Jesus
answered, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than
all the other Galileans because they
suffered this way?'" Again in V4 about those on whom the tower
collapsed - "Do you think they were more guilty than all the
others living in Jerusalem?" Our minds aren't typically comfortable
with mystery, with the unexplained. We tend to quickly
analyze things and assign it a box, so we can deal with it and move on
to something else. We pretty quickly (and often
prejudicially) assign blame or responsibility, even when we don't know
all the details. "Probably another case of Pilate blowing
his stack." 'They should have known better than to visit Jerusalem when
things were so tense; they were asking for trouble."
"They must have been linked to some terrorist group." "Their number
must have been up." "They must have done something in
their past to deserve such a violent end."

We have this
tendency to sort of assume a "behave and be blessed" mentality; that
people can "earn the right" to felicity and
happiness. If I keep my nose clean and behave, "God owes me"! We feel
entitled to good fortune if we behave.

The corollary to
that is - if someone's suffering, they must have really messed up! When
Job loses all his possessions and
children and is covered in painful sores from head to toe, what
explanation do his friends come up with to try to justify what's
happened? Job 4:7 "Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever
perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?" Read
between the lines, Job - if you're REALLY been innocent and upright,
this COULDN'T have happened! Or, Job 22:9f "And
you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the
fatherless.That is why snares are all around you, why sudden
peril terrifies you..."

That may sound
like nice and tidy airtight theology - God blesses the righteous, all
the time, everywhere, and so if you're
suffering you MUST have blown it - but Jesus pops the balloon of our
perfect human mental schemes. John 9:1-3 "As he went
along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind?" [LET'S PLAY PIN THE BLAME ON THE DONKEY!] "Neither this man nor
his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this
happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

We don't know the
whole picture. We shouldn't jump to conclusions about who's responsible
or to blame for certain
circumstances happening. We do know God made us to be responsible moral
agents, with power to make inferior choices
through which sin winds up having negative outcomes. But we can't
ALWAYS project that overlay upon a scenario without
knowing the details.

Jesus rattles our
very assumptions, that we start from a good enough position as to be
"entitled" to God's blessing
conditional upon our performance. Prophets did not tend to paint a very
rosy picture of the human heart. From Adam and Eve
on down, we are infected with a selfish bent that predisposes us to bad
decisions and inclinations. Jer 17:9 "The heart is
deceitful above all things and beyond cure.Who can understand it?" The
Apostle Paul put it bluntly in Romans 2:5, "But
because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are
storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath,
when his righteous judgment will be revealed." WHOA! And in Rom 9:20f
Paul reminds us we are in no position to be passing
judgment on or blaming God for things we don't understand: "But who are
you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is
formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Does
not the potter have the right to make out of the same
lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?"

DWELLERS IN GRACE-TIME

Into the
conversation trying to process "when bad things happen" to people,
Jesus injects a parable, a word-picture intended to
introduce some light or perspective from God's Kingdom. Lk 13:6-9 "A
man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went
to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man
who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been
coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any.Cut it
down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man
replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and
fertilize it.If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it
down.'"

We know that the
fig tree may refer to the Jewish nation; in Mark 11(14) Jesus
pronounces judgment on a barren fig tree
that seems to represent the hostile attitude of the religious leaders
toward Him. But in a broader sense, the fruitless fig tree in
the parable represents our unreceptive, proud, self-exalting human
mindset toward our Creator - that "stubbornness" and
"unrepentant heart" Paul warns is storing up wrath against us. The
landowner has been coming 3 years straight looking for fruit
on the tree (presumably 3 years AFTER it came to fruit-bearing age).
Would he be justified in cutting it down now? Of course.

This challenges
our coddled post-boomer sense of entitlement. Does God owe us our
existence? Do we have any RIGHT to
feel He has to justify His actions to us? No. Rom 3:23 "All have
sinned, and fall short of God's glory..." Rom 6:23 "The wages
of sin is death..." You want to know what we're "entitled" to? What God
"owes" us, what our "wages" are? As sinners, He
owes us DEATH! He's already given us 3 years too long. We're using up
the soil; a waste of good air.

But right here we
meet One who intercedes for us. The gardener answers: "Sir, give it one
more chance.Leave it another
year, and I'll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer."
(NLT) Who is this "gardener", this "man who took care of the
vineyard"? Who intercedes for His people? Romans 8:34 "Christ Jesus,
who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is
at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." "Father, give
Ernest one more chance.I know he blew it again, but I'll
dig around his roots and apply my love and grace, and give him some
more time to bloom." When we mess up, when we have
sinned due to hardness of heart or rebellious roots, Jesus buys us time!

So this is where
we live, and exist - in GRACE-time. We have no "claim" on God as if
we've earned the right to 1 more
day alive. But Jesus at the cross has purchased for us an eternity of
grace, of forgiveness, of patience, of fertilizing with the
riches of the Holy Spirit, of soaking in His love until our hardened
roots and hearts finally take in His nourishment and become
fruitful.

TURNING THE TABLES: "REPENT!"

When we play the
game of "Pin the Blame on the Donkey", we subtly are justifying
ourselves, trying to make ourselves look
good, to show that we're better than the guilty party. Jesus challenges
that mindset, that selfish protectiveness. Vv2-5 "Do you
think...? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all
perish... Do you think...? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you
too will all perish."

Jesus surprises
those who may have expected Him to blame Pilate the governor, or the
unwitting Galileans, or anybody
other than themselves. In effect He's warning, "You need to change! To
'metanoia', do an about-turn in your thought patterns!
REPENT or you'll be destroyed!" Allow your unfruitful roots to be dug
around, loosened up, fertilized, renewed. Put on the
thinking-cap of God's Word rather than common assumptions.

What was the
message of the apostles after Pentecost in Acts 3:19? "Repent, then,
and turn to God, so that your sins may be
wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord..." Paul
reminded the church at Corinth, 2Cor 6:2 "For he says, "In
the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped
you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now
is
the day of salvation." Before the tower collapses! Or the black ice
hits. Or those strangers come to look at the truck you have for
sale.

BEARING FRUIT IN SURPRISING CONDITIONS

Closely associated
with "repentance" in the New Testament is the whole idea of "bearing
fruit". John the Baptist warned the
crowds in Matthew 3:10, "The ax is already at the root of the trees,
and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut
down and thrown into the fire." Jesus echoes this in His seminal Sermon
on the Mount, Mt 7:19 - "Every tree that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." Nearer the end of His
ministry He tells His disciples, John 15:16 "You did not
choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--
fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever
you ask in my name."

As people look at
your life, do they see what Christ would call "fruit"? Or are you more
like the barren fig tree in the
parable? Are you discipling others, reproducing yourself spiritually?
Are you drinking in God's Word daily so you can pour into
others, sharing God's truth and promises and guidance? Are you hanging
out with anyone to hear their struggles, share your
encouragement, and pray with them?

Joni Eareckson
Tada has learned how to bear fruit despite being dealt what many people
would consider "a bad hand". She
suffered a spinal cord injury in a diving accident in her teens which
left her a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. She is now in her
fourth decade of paralysis. Yet her disability has become a platform
God has used to touch thousands of lives around the world,
through her singing, her radio broadcasts, her writing, and her
ministry, Joni and Friends. She is one of the people on the face of
the planet I'd consider 'most qualified' to talk about this area of
making sense of suffering, dealing with the quesion of "Why
me?"

In chapter 4 of her
book A Place of Healing, she identifies 5 possible benefits
of suffering.

Benefit #1)
Suffering can turn us from a Dangerous Direction

Benefit #2)
Suffering reminds us where our True Strength lies

Benefit #3)
Suffering restores a Lost Beauty in Christ

Benefit #4)
Suffering can Heighten our Thirst for Christ

Benefit #5)
Suffering can Increase our Fruitfulness

I'd just like to
end today with a couple of quotes from this amazing woman of God who
has suffered so much over the
years; is suffering afresh now due to pain in her lower back due to a
tiny fracture at the base of her spine. She speaks with real
authority on the subject of suffering, after all she's been through,
and all she's seen by interacting with others with disabilities
through her ministry. She compares the effect of suffering to that of
how sandblasting restored the beauty of the Notre Dame
Cathedral.

"I can't help but
consider the way God uses suffering to sandblast you and me. There's
nothing like real hardships to strip
off the veneer in which you and I so carefully cloak ourselves.
Heartache and physical pain reach below the superficial, surface
places of our lives, stripping away years of accumulated indifference
and neglect. When pain and problems press us up against a
holy God, suffering can't help but strip away years of dirt. Affliction
has a way of jackhammering our character, shaking us up
and loosening our grip on everything we hold tightly. But the beauty of
being stripped down to the basics, sandblasted until we
reach a place where we feel empty and helpless, is that God can fill us
up with Himself. When pride and pettiness have been
removed, God can fill us with 'Christ in you, the hope of glory.'"

Kind of like the
way the Gardener "digs around the roots" loosening up the fig tree to
fertilize it, don't you think?

Also you may have
noticed Benefit 5 was that "Suffering can Increase our Fruitfulness".
She writes: "You may not have a
debilitating disease...but you do know--all of us do--what it means to
be outwardly wasting away day by day. Perhaps you find
yourself in your late fifties now, and the changes are encroaching;
your limitations--the aches and pains--are catching you by
surprise. Well, these are all little wake-up calls, as far as I'm
concerned. Little alarm clocks, little waving yellow flags, small
signals that remind us that as we are wasting away, we can go to God in
our weakness to be renewed and made stronger day by
day."

Don't those little
'waving yellow flags' sound like little reminders to "REPENT! Turn back
to God for refreshing"?

I like how she
acknowledges that, while God may heal, sometimes the place He's most
glorified is in other arrangements
that might not be our preferred choice. Joni writes: "As I have stated,
at times of His choosing, God certainly does intervene and
heal. But it's also true that even though multitudes of devoted,
good-hearted Christians pray in great faith, many eyes will stay
blind. Many babies will die at birth. Many cancers will not be
eradicated until that once-and-forever healing of a new body and
a new life in Christ's presence. And many paraplegics and quadriplegics
like me will never regain the use of legs or arms or
hands that don't work.

"God also cared
for James, but James was run through with Herod's sword because of his
testimony. God cared for John,
but allowed him to be exiled and left isolated on a lonely island. He
cared for Stephen, from the first stones that struck the
young man's earnest, unmarred face to the last one that sent him out of
his broken body. He cared for Paul's companion
Trophimus, whom the apostle had to leave behind sick in Ephesus--though
he was desperately needed for ministry.

"And what is His
will? That you and I be in the best position, the best place, the
timeliest circumstance in which God can be
glorified the most. For me, that place just happens to be a wheelchair.
That happens to be my place of healing."